What a coincidence. Bug scientists just discovered that a layer of human protein also has great potential for data storage. The bugs just can't get enough so they have embarked on a cultural exchange program to obtain more.
Posted on 07/10/2006 4:45:41 PM PDT by annie laurie
DVDs coated with a layer of protein could one day hold so much information that storing data on your computer hard drive will be obsolete, says a US-based researcher.
He says that the protein layer, made from tiny genetically altered microbe proteins, could allow DVDs and other external devices to store terabytes of information.
Professor V Renugopalakrishnan of the Harvard Medical School in Boston reported his findings at the International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Brisbane this week.
"What this will do eventually is eliminate the need for hard drive memory completely," he says.
Renugopalakrishnan says high-capacity storage devices like the new protein-based DVDs will be essential to the defence, medical and entertainment industries.
These trade in terabytes of information with the transfer of information such as satellite images, imaging scans and movies.
"You have a compelling need that is not going to be met with the existing magnetic storage technology," he says.
Renugopalakrishnan says the new protein-based DVD will have advantages over current optical storage devices (such as the Blue-ray).
It will be able to store at least 20 times more than the Blue-ray and eventually even up to 50,000 gigabytes (about 50 terabytes) of information, he says.
The star at the centre of the high-capacity DVD is a light-activated protein found in the membrane of a salt marsh microbe Halobacterium salinarum.
The protein, called bacteriorhodopsin (bR), captures and stores sunlight to convert it to chemical energy.
When light shines on bR, it is converted to a series of intermediate molecules each with a unique shape and colour before returning to its 'ground state'.
The intermediates generally only last for hours or days.
But Renugopalakrishnan and colleagues modified the DNA that produces bR protein to produce an intermediate that lasts for more than several years, which paves the way for a binary system to store data.
"The ground state could be the zero and any of the intermediates could be the one," he says.
The scientists also engineered the bR protein to make its intermediates more stable at the high temperatures generated by storing terabytes of data.
The flip side
Renugopalakrishnan says making large amounts of information so portable on high-capacity removable storage devices will make it easier for information to fall into the wrong hands.
"Unfortunately science can be used and abused. Information can be stolen very quickly," he says. "One has to have some safeguards there."
In conjunction with NEC in Japan, Renugopalakrishnan's team has produced a prototype device and estimate a USB disk will be commercialised in 12 months and a DVD in 18 to 24 months.
The work has been funded by a range of US military, government, academic institutions and commercial companies, as well as the European Union.
Not sure if this is pingworthy for the entire list, but it might interest you.
Vic.
WOW, that's cool.
What a coincidence. Bug scientists just discovered that a layer of human protein also has great potential for data storage. The bugs just can't get enough so they have embarked on a cultural exchange program to obtain more.
;)
~GCR~
Maybe the bug proteins will end the times I say
"This disk drive CRAWLS!"
Probably would have if you'd smashed a firefly. 
Has PETA released a statement yet on how unacceptable it is to exploit microbes in this manner? If not, expect one soon.
Venkatesan. Honest!
OMG.. whats his first name? Vinny? :)
Thanks for the ping! I found it of interest but it doesn't quite meet the criteria I try to stick to for the list. It's just too purely speculative and a lot of these things, while intriguing, you never hear about again. If it were about, say, Sony engaged in R&D that's one thing, but if it's some idle theorizing by a random science dude that's quite another!
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Great!
Well, now when you say your system has a bug... you won't be lying.
Yep. There's interest. The article indicates that the research team has produced a prototype device.
Now that is not theorizing."It ain't bragging if you can do it." - Y. Berra
Can they do it? Time will show - but a prediction of commercialization in a year's time is not exactly "global warming is happening because it's hotter today than it was yesterday, and in 20 years the sea level will rise 30 feet!"
"He says that the protein layer, made from tiny genetically altered microbe proteins, "COULD" allow DVDs and other external devices to store terabytes of information.
Professor V Renugopalakrishnan of the Harvard Medical School in Boston reported his findings at the International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Brisbane this week.
"What this "WILL" do eventually is eliminate the need for hard drive memory completely," he says. "
Notice the 2 words I have made all caps & in quote. Tense is important. The article is nonsense.
But noteworthy. The level of nonsense in science is increasing.
Still, for a technology with which they propose to replace the hard disk, access speed claims are conspicuous by their absence.And OTOH they do not actually claim archival storage capability, only "several years."
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